A New Arrival in Halloween Town
by Emotistic Optimistic
Summary: What happens when a newly married Victorian young man lands in the Town of Halloween and meets the very eccentric, very bored princess, her almost adopted twin brother, and the rest of the Halloween Gang? Corpse Bride/TNBC crossover.


A/N--Well, this is a rewrite of a story I wrote for Pumpkin Patch/tnbc.eu (Althoughwhen this was first written, it was still ;) ) But I wanted to rewrite it and see what y'all thought. So...yeah. Enjoy the new, revamped "A New Arrival In Halloween Town"!!

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Jackylyn was lying on Spiral Hill, bored. Her white-blonde hair fanned out around her pale, stitched face, forming a strange halo around it. She wanted something, anything, to happen. She stared at the sky, which was threatening rain. She probably should get back home before it started, but she didn't want to. Truth be told, she was sick of everything here. Sick of Halloween, sick of being a ragdoll, and sick of being Princess of Halloween. What she wouldn't give to have something exciting happen. Her large, dark brown eyes closed halfway. Even her thoughts were starting to bore her. Just when she was nearly asleep, the cemetery gate creaked open and a rush of footsteps echoed through the graveyard. Jackylyn sat up so quickly she nearly tumbled off Spiral Hill. Her eyes were wide open, searching for the one who intruded her peace. She finally saw a tall, thin shadow running down the path. Jackylyn's eyes widened even more.

"Crap," she whispered. "If that's Jack, I'm screwed..." She bit her thumbnail, knowing what had happened last time she'd stayed out too late. But, wait, the shadow tripped and fell. Hard. Jackylyn let out a sigh of relief, knowing it couldn't possibly be Jack. Then she remembered her manners and jumped off the hill to help whoever had fallen. But the shadow was up again, and it ran until Jackylyn saw it collapse behind a tombstone. Jackylyn paused for a moment. Maybe it was one of those things that had come five years ago, a Heartless. Carefully, she crept to the tombstone the thing was hiding behind. She heard its frantic breathing, as though it had been scared out of its wits. She cautiously walked to the other side of the tombstone.

"Hello?" she whispered.

"Ohh!" the thing gasped. Jackylyn crouched down to get a better look. The thing turned out to be a man, human, she was guessing. He was young, probably not much older than Jackylyn herself, and relatively handsome, with his large dark eyes, heart-shaped face, and raven black hair. His nose was a little long, but, considering he looked as if he might pass out, that was a minor flaw.

"Hey, what's your name?" she asked him. He tried to answer, but couldn't. He seemed like he was on the verge of hyperventilating. Jackylyn placed a hand on his shoulder. "Yo, calm down. Breathe in. Come on, take a deep breath." The young man obliged, taking in a deep breath. "Now breathe out," Jackylyn said. He let his breath out in a sigh. "Feel better?" Jackylyn asked. The young man nodded.

"Yes, thank you," he said. His voice had a charming accent to it. Jackylyn was guessing it was British, but she couldn't be sure.

"Cool. So what's your name? Mine's Jackylyn," she said, holding out a hand for him to shake.

"Victor. Victor Van Dort," he said, taking Jackylyn's hand and shaking it.

"Nice last name. And it's very nice to meet you, Victor," Jackylyn said. "How old are you?"

"Nineteen," Victor said. "You?"

"Same. Now, tell me, how on earth did you get to Halloween Town?" Jackylyn asked. Victor's eyes widened.

"Hal...Halloween Town?" he asked. "Is...Is that where I am right now?" Jackylyn nodded.

"Yup. All Halloween, all the time." She stuck her tongue out. "It gets pretty boring after a while. Anyway, how'd you get here?"

Victor sighed. "Well, here's what happened. My...my wife..."

"Wait. Hold it. How old did you say you were again, Victor?" Jackylyn asked.

"N...Nineteen," Victor answered, a little startled by Jackylyn's sudden interruption.

"And...you're married?" Jackylyn asked. Victor shrugged.

"Maybe not for long. My wife, Victoria...well, she fell ill about a week ago. Really ill. I...I'm not sure if she'll live through it..." he said softly. Jackylyn thought it sounded like he was about to cry. She took one of his hands.

"Hey, it's gonna be okay. Why don't you...wait a sec, what's this?" Jackylyn asked. She drew her hand away from his and saw that blood was on it. She quickly took Victor's hand again and examined it. Sure enough, blood was trickling down the long, willowy fingers. "You're bleeding!" she cried.

"What? Oh, it's nothing. Don't worry about..." Victor started, but Jackylyn interrupted.

"I'm going to worry about it, thank you very much! We need to treat it right away!" Thinking quickly, she pulled an extra patch from her pocket, then whispered, "Water." A stream of water shot from her fingertip. She took Victor's hand again and started cleaning the cut.

"Jackylyn, please, it's not necess--..." Victor tried again, but Jackylyn interrupted him again.

"Do you want to get gangrene and die?" she asked sharply. Victor swallowed and didn't answer. Jackylyn sighed and shook her head.

"Sorry. I flip out when stuff like this happens. So what happened next?" she asked, her tone softer than before.

"Well," Victor continued, "I was really distraught about all this..."

"Huh?" Jackylyn asked. She was ripping her right sleeve into a long strip.

"I was...really distressed about this," Victor said. At Jackylyn's unchanging look, he said, "I was upset."

"Oh, okay. I get you now," Jackylyn said, nodding as she looped the strip of cloth around his hand. "We'll get you a proper bandage later. But what happened?"

"Well, you see, when something's bothering me, I always go into these woods right outside the village. This time, I was so...broken up, I guess you'd say, that I wasn't paying attention to where I was going until I found myself in this large grove of trees. There were...seven trees, I believe, and each of them had a strange door on it. The one I was drawn to was the Jack-o'-Lantern door, so I went over to it, opened the door, and..."

"And you were sucked in," Jackylyn finished.

"Yes. Is...is that what happened to you?" Victor asked. Jackylyn's eyes widened. In the dim light, Victor must not have seen her stitches, so he thought she was human.

"Well...not exactly," Jackylyn said sheepishly. "Um...hey, why don't you come to my house for the night? We'd better get a move on before it starts..." An ominous booming of thunder sounded though the air, and a moment later, rain came down in buckets. "Raining..." Jackylyn finished, severely annoyed. She stood up, then took Victor's hand and helped him to his feet. To her surprise, Victor was laughing.

"Talk about bad luck, eh?" he asked. Jackylyn looked at him thoughtfully. His clothes were definitely Victorian, which would explain why he sounded so polite. But she looked at his face. He was grinning, and his raven hair was soaked and falling into his eyes. She smiled.

_Guess I got what I wished for_, she thought. _Still, Victor seems a little uptight. Maybe he needs a good few days of Halloween to loosen him up. Wonder if Dad had to go through the same thing when he came here._ Her eyes widened. _What if Victor's the Pumpkin King? Would he know? He kind of looks like Dad, well, I mean he's tall and thin. But...maybe this is what Dad looked like when he was alive..._ Jackylyn shook her head.

"I think it's about time we stop getting soaked," she said, grabbing his wrist and pulling him with her to Town Square.

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In about ten minutes' time, they reached Skellington Manor. Even so, they were still soaked through and through, and now dripping all over the place. Victor laughed again.

"I've never been this soaked in my life!" he exclaimed. "If I did, Mother would've killed me."

Jackylyn laughed as she turned on a lamp. "Sounds like you live in a pretty strict society," she said. Victor nodded, then gasped as Jackylyn turned around. She had been expecting it, so she just smiled crookedly and shrugged.

"I-I'm terribly sorry," Victor apologized quickly. "It...It's just...well..."

"You weren't expecting to see a living ragdoll, huh?" Jackylyn asked, her eyebrows raised. She laughed. "Don't freak, Victor. It's fine."

"Jackylyn, is that you, dear?" they heard a voice ask from upstairs.

"Crap," Jackylyn hissed. "That's my mom."

"Excuse me? 'Crap'?" Victor asked. Jackylyn shook her head.

"Never mind that now. We need to make a story for you." She bit her lip in thought. "I guess...I guess we could say that you're dead..." She looked at him closely. His face was still rather pale from his earlier shock, his eyes had huge dark circles surrounding them, and his clothes were torn, wrinkled and soaked. Jackylyn nodded. "Yeah, you look pretty dead." She giggled. "You look like you got in a fight, then drowned." Victor gave her an odd look.

"Not sure whether to take that as a compliment or insult here," he said.

"Can you hold your breath for a bit? Like, maybe two or three minutes? If not, breathe as shallowly as possible," Jackylyn instructed. Sally came down the stairs.

"Jackylyn! What happened? Why are you soaked?" Sally asked, then noticed Victor. "And why do you have a young man with you?" She gave her daughter a suspicious look. "Jackylyn..."

"No! Not what you think!" Jackylyn exclaimed. She noticed Victor's surprised look and giggled nervously. To Sally, she said, "This is Victor, Mom. He just died...today."

"Run over by a carriage," Victor said light-heartedly.

"I've never heard that cause of death before," Sally said thoughtfully. "But it's very nice to meet you, Victor."

"Please, madam. The pleasure's all mine," Victor said, bowing formally. Jackylyn noticed Victor's lips curved up in a smile. He was obviously enjoying himself.

"Is Dad home yet?" Jackylyn asked. Sally shook her head.

"No, he's still at that meeting," she said. Jackylyn pulled a face.

"The Mayor can talk for hours," she said, sounding annoyed. "But...I was wondering, could Victor stay with us for the night?"

"I don't see why not," Sally said. "If he doesn't mind staying in the library, that is."

"Not at all," Victor said. "Thank you for letting me stay."

"Just this way, Mr. Van Dort," Jackylyn said, taking Victor's wrist again.

"I'm heading to bed," Sally said as they began to head to the library. "Good night, Jacky."

"Night, Mom!" Jackylyn called over her shoulder. As she walked, she failed to notice one of the stitches on her arm was getting loose. Victor stopped suddenly, looking at something. Jackylyn kept walking, and her arm came undone. It wasn't until Victor let out a cry of alarm did Jackylyn turn around and notice her hand still grasping Victor's wrist, even though she was at least a yard ahead of him. Jackylyn giggled.

"My bad," she said, taking her arm and quickly sewing it back on. Victor looked alarmed.

"Does that...does that happen often?" he asked.

"Nah. Only when I get careless," Jackylyn said nonchalantly. "Hey, let me see your jacket."

"Why?"

"Because it's a freaking mess. I'll fix it," Jackylyn offered.

"All right, Jacky," Victor said, a mischievous grin growing across his face. Jackylyn's expression soured.

"Just hand it over, Vicky," she shot back. Now Victor's look soured. Jackylyn just smiled wickedly as he handed her the coat.

"Truce?" she asked.

"Yes. Truce," Victor agreed. Jackylyn took the jacket and looked it over.

"All right, you can sleep on the settee. How's that for a word, huh? But, really, the couch is really comfortable. I've fallen asleep on there tons of times and..." She finally looked up and noticed Victor was already fast asleep. She smiled.

_He must be dead tired_, she thought. _Well, heck, I'd be, too. Sounds like he had a rough day._ She went to one of the cupboards and took out a quilt. After shaking out a few spiders, she laid it over him, then sat down in the electric chair, working on Victor's jacket. After only a few minutes, she felt her eyelids droop. She tried twitching to stay awake, but soon fell asleep, Victor's tattered jacket still on her lap.

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End file.
